1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the removal of gas from a liquid in which it has become entrained and particularly those applications in which a small quantity of gas must be removed from a liquid where it would be beneficial to have no gas present. Examples of application of this system are hydraulic systems and electrolyte management systems, systems in which a small quantity of gas can have highly undesirable effects.
2. Background Art
Cyclone or centrifugal separators have been used in many applications to separate one substance from another on the basis of density, whether or not those substances are of the same or different physical states and particularly for the separation of light liquids from heavy liquids and gases from liquids. Several devices in the prior art can be described as being cylindrical or conical in shape about a vertical axis having a port near the top of the structure for introduction, tangentially of the interior surface of the structure, of a liquid bearing an entrained gas and having two exit ports, one centrally located at the top of the structure for escaping gas and the other at the bottom for the exit of the degassed liquid. Schneible, U.S. Pat. No. 928,546, July 20, 1909, and Wiseman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,358, June 27, 1978, are examples of such basic configuration.
In some applications, baffle and other structures have been used in attempts to preclude small amounts of a liquid from being entrained in gas which is removed from the mixture. Examples of such structures are found in the baffle and collector ring of Guyer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,916, Oct. 11, 1960, and in the baffle plate of Lowrie, U.S. 3,877,904, Apr. 15, 1975. In still other applications, particularly those which are directed to the separation of a liquid aerosol from a gas stream, a filter has been used to collect, liquefy and discharge the aerosol as a liquid. An example of this type of structure using a rotating conical lyophobic filter, in addition to a deflector or baffle, is found in Booth et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,524, Aug. 13, 1974.